Past Events

11 March 2020 - Coronavirus: update
All public events at the WZB have to be cancelled with immediate effect. This measure will be effective until 20 July 2020. It is based on today's decision by the Governing Mayor of Berlin to introduce a range of urgent measures for Berlin's research institutions to counter the further spread of the Corona-virus.

Workshop and Discussion of the book by Alec D. Walen in the presence of the author

Monday, 16 March 2020

Start: 10:00 am

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In 1989, roundtable negotiations between undemocratic power holders and the democratic opposition led to a transition from autocratic regimes to liberal democracies in the Visegrád countries: Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland. Although the Soviet-type regimes collapsed not because of classical revolutions, the political transitions resulted in revolutionary changes in the constitutional systems.
On the thirtieth anniversary, the questions we are trying to answer at this workshop are the following: To what extent did the coordinated transformation in the region succeed or fail? Could a round table negotiation serve as a strategical device for restoring democracy and constitutionalism again?

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Wojciech Sadurski, distinguished Professor of Law at the Universities of Sydney and Warsaw, will present his new book “Poland's Constitutional Breakdown” (OUP 2019) followed by a discussion with Mattias Kumm (WZB Center for Global Constitutionalism) , Max Steinbeis (Verfassungsblog) and Kriszta Kovács (WZB Center for Global Constitutionalism).

Wednesday, 17 July 2019

Start: 6:30 pm

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The Scholars Workshop will discuss papers on global constitutionalism/global governance/human rights. One of the goals of the Workshop is to advance global constitutionalism as an interdisciplinary field. Another is to promote the creation of networks of scholars working in similar fields. Thus, the Center invited submissions from a broad range of disciplines including International Law, Political Science, International Relations, Comparative Constitutional Law, Comparative Politics, Political Theory and Philosophy.

The event is organized and sponsored by the journal "Global Constitutionalism" and co-sponsored by PluriCourts and the WZB Center for Global Constitutionalism. The event is open to the public but registration is required.

Saturday, 6 July 2019

Start: 9:00 am

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Are social practices actions or institutional frameworks of interaction structured by common rules? How do social practices such as signing a cheque differ from international practices such as signing a peace treaty? Traversing the fields of international relations (IR) and philosophy, this book defends an institutionalist conception of practices as part of a general practice theory indebted to Oakeshott, Wittgenstein and Hegel. The proposed practice theory has two core aspects: practice internalism and normative descriptivism. In developing a philosophical analysis of social practices that has a special relevance for international relations, Silviya Lechner and Mervyn Frost depart from Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of practice that dominates the current ‘practice turn' in IR. The authors show that the contemporary global realm is constituted by two distinct macro practices - the practice of sovereign states and that of global rights.

Friday, 5 July 2019

Start: 6:00 pm

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Authoritarianism has been undergoing a reinvention in recent years. It no longer attacks democracy and the rule of law up front but instead tries to adopt the language and even (at least nominally) the institutions of democratic constitutionalism to promote its autocratic aims from within.

13 - 14 November 2018

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The WZB Berlin Social Science Center, the European University Institute and the London School for Economics and Political Science are proud to jointly organize the second annual European Junior Faculty Forum for Public Law and Jurisprudence (EJFF).

Drawing boundaries is one of the main functions of modern law. Legal boundaries deeply shape modern societies. They define inclusion and exclusion and differentiate legal status, by that determining who belongs to a society or group – and who does not. This fundamental function of law to define belonging is at the heart of a lecture series organized by the Center for Global Constitutionalism (WZB) together with the Centre Marc Bloch.

Tuesday, 10 July 2018

Start: 6:00 pm

Contact

The Scholars Workshop will discuss papers on global constitutionalism/global governance/human rights. One of the goals of the Workshop is to advance global constitutionalism as an interdisciplinary field. Another is to promote the creation of networks of scholars working in similar fields. Thus, the Center invited submissions from a broad range of disciplines including International Law, Political Science, International Relations, Comparative Constitutional Law, Comparative Politics, Political Theory and Philosophy.

Contact

Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) witnessed some of the most visible transitions from authoritarian to democratic rule as part of the Third Wave of democratization. The fact that most of the former Communist states of CEE later joined the European Union (EU) created the expectation that, notwithstanding the difficulties faced by other post-authoritarian states, the constitutional democracies of CEE were fully consolidated.

Monday, 18 December 2017

Start: 10:30 am

Contact

The European Junior Faculty Forum for Public Law and Jurisprudence intends to address public law scholarship from a theoretically informed doctrinal, interdisciplinary or comparative perspective, contribute to the research of junior scholars, and create an intellectual community of European public law scholars. The forum brings together a selected group of early career scholars for what promises to be an intellectually rewarding academic exchange. The papers, selected based upon blind peer-review, will be commented on by two senior scholars.

This workshop brings together distinguished political theorists, legal scholars and political scientists to discussions on how best to understand public reason – understood in a broad and inclusive way - in relation to courts, and in discussion about what practical impact such ideals may have in the context of adjudication

11 - 12 July 2016

Start: 8:45 am

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More than ever before, questions of movement, displacement and belonging, equality and inequality, borders and otherness have become hot-button issues worldwide. Public law--whether domestic, European or international--structures practices of inclusion and exclusion, borders and boundaries, and line-drawing in a variety of ways. The analysis and assessment of how that happens, for what purposes and with what effects, is the focus of this conference.

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The relationship between "Global Constitutionalism” and Critical Theory is the subject of a workshop organized by Mattias Kumm, Rainer Forst and Seyla Benhabib on December 11th, 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. in Berlin, Heilig-Geist-Kapelle (Spandauer Str. 1). Has the globalization of public law, that claims to be guided by basic commitments to human rights, democracy and the rule of law, helped to realize the emancipatory potential of the constitutionalist tradition? Or has constitutionalist rhetoric merely legitimated new or helped to cover up old forms of repression?

Friday, 11 December 2015

Start: 10:00 am

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Jan-Werner Müller is Professor of Politics at the Department of Politics, Princeton University. His research interests include the history of modern political thought, liberalism and its critics, constitutionalism, religion and politics, and the normative dimensions of European integration.

Tuesday, 23 June 2015

Start: 6:00 pm

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Neil Walker holds the Regius Chair of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations at the University of Edinburgh. His main area of expertise is constitutional theory. He has published extensively on the constitutional dimension of legal order at sub-state, state, supranational and international levels. He has also published at length on the relationship between security, legal order and political community.

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Susan Rose-Ackerman is the Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence (Law and Political Science) with joint appointments between Yale Law School and the Yale Department of Political Science. She has taught and written widely on corruption, law and development, administrative law, law and regulatory policy, the nonprofit sector, and federalism.

Tuesday, 26 May 2015

Start: 6:00 pm

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J. Christopher McCrudden, a William W. Cook Global Law Professor at Michigan Law, is a professor of human rights and equality law at Queens University Belfast, and a practicing barrister-at-law with Blackstone Chambers. Specializing in human rights, he concentrates on issues of equality and discrimination as well as the relationship between international and comparative human rights law.

Tuesday, 19 May 2015

Start: 6:00 pm

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Christoph Möllers is Professor of Public Law and Jurisprudence at the Faculty of Law, Humboldt-University Berlin. He was a Fellow at NYU School of Law and at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. He is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. Since January 2011 he has acted as a judge at the Superior Administrative Court in Berlin.

Tuesday, 5 May 2015

Start: 6:00 pm

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Lea Ypi is Associate Professor in Political Theory in the Government Department, London School of Economics, and Adjunct Associate Professor in Philosophy at the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University.

Dr. Hagen Schulz-Forberg, visiting scholar from Aarhus University, Denmark, is co-organizing with Professor Mattias Kumm, managing head of the WZB Rule of Law Center, the author's workshop
"Zero Hours": Conceptual Insecurities and New Beginnings from Global Perspectives since the Interwar Period".

It takes place on Thursday, January 15 and Friday, January 16, 2015.

The workshops analyzes global historical perspectives on the intellectual, legal, political and economic ruptures in connection with the End of World War II.

Thursday, 15 January 2015

Start: 9:00 am

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The workshop will offer a unique opportunity to discuss the first drafts of the chapters for the volume on the Enforcement of EU Law against Member States, a book to be edited by András Jakab and Dimitry Kochenov, to which all of the panelists have agreed to contribute. The questions addressed are of wider interest and lend themselves to be discussed in a wider public forum.

In recent years there has been a vigorous debate among political philosophers about the origin and limits of the territorial rights of states. Three major views have emerged: a Kantian view; a Lockean view; and a nationalist view. These views differ substantially, but what they have in common is that they theorize territorial rights essentially one state at a time, without taking anything like a global standpoint. For that reason, topics such as immigration and global responsibilities connected to territoriality only appear as afterthoughts in these accounts.

Professor Yu Keping is the Director of the Center for Chinese Government Innovations at Beijing University, China. He is a distinguished scholar having produced many books including the widely noted Democracy Is a Good Thing. In addition to his academic work, he has also acted as an advisor on political reforms to the Chinese government.

Professor Yu is also the New World Senior Fellow in the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation in the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

This event is part of the colloquium series “Rethinking Law in a Global Context”, which this summer semester focuses on “Private Ordering and Public Authority”, sponsored by the WZB Rule of Law Center and convened by Prof. Dr. Mattias Kumm (WZB and New York University) in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Ingolf Pernice (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Start: 4:15 pm

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This event is part of the colloquium series “Rethinking Law in a Global Context”, which this summer semester focuses on “Private Ordering and Public Authority”, sponsored by the WZB Rule of Law Center and convened by Prof. Dr. Mattias Kumm (WZB and New York University) in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Ingolf Pernice (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).

Professor Moritz Renner is the Lichtenberg-Professor for Transnational Economic Law and Theory of Economic Law at the University of Bremen.

This event is part of the colloquium series “Rethinking Law in a Global Context”, which this summer semester focuses on “Private Ordering and Public Authority”, sponsored by the WZB Rule of Law Center and convened by Prof. Dr. Mattias Kumm (WZB and New York University) in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Ingolf Pernice (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).

This event is part of the colloquium series “Rethinking Law in a Global Context”, which this summer semester focuses on “Private Ordering and Public Authority”, sponsored by the WZB Rule of Law Center and convened by Prof. Dr. Mattias Kumm (WZB and New York University) in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Ingolf Pernice (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).

This event is part of the colloquium series “Rethinking Law in a Global Context”, which this summer semester focuses on “Private Ordering and Public Authority”, sponsored by the WZB Rule of Law Center and convened by Prof. Dr. Mattias Kumm (WZB and New York University) in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Ingolf Pernice (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

Start: 4:15 pm

Contact

This event is part of the colloquium series “Rethinking Law in a Global Context”, which this summer semester focuses on “Private Ordering and Public Authority”, sponsored by the WZB Rule of Law Center and convened by Prof. Dr. Mattias Kumm (WZB and New York University) in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Ingolf Pernice (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).

This event is part of the colloquium series “Rethinking Law in a Global Context”, which this summer semester focuses on “Private Ordering and Public Authority”, sponsored by the WZB Rule of Law Center and convened by Prof. Dr. Mattias Kumm (WZB and New York University) in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Ingolf Pernice (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).

Gonçalo de Almeida Ribeiro is Gulbenkian Professor at the Católica Global School of Law.

Tuesday, 14 May 2013

Start: 4:15 pm

Contact

This event is part of the colloquium series “Rethinking Law in a Global Context”, which this summer semester focuses on “Private Ordering and public Authority”, sponsored by the WZB Rule of Law Center and convened by Prof. Dr. Mattias Kumm (WZB and New York Univeristy) in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Ingolf Pernice (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).

Joseph H. H. Weiler is University Professor at New York University School of Law, Joseph Straus Professor of Law, European Union Jean Monnet Chaired Professor. He is Director of the following institutions: Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law & Justice, Tikvah Center for Law & Jewish Civilization, Jean Monnet Center for International and Regional Economic Law and Justice and of the J.S.D. Program.

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On the Governance of Disparate Traditional, Religious and Statutory Law in Pluralist Societies -
International Conference

Description

How do courts reach decisions in hybrid legal contexts? Which rules and procedures are functional to manage legal plurality? And to which extent does legitimate conflict resolution rely on valid statutory rules? These questions touch upon core problems that obstruct rule of law projects all over the world.

17 - 19 May 2011

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On Easter Monday, April 25, the Hungarian President signed into law Hungary’s new constitution, scheduled to enter into force on January 1, 2012. The constitution is widely understood to be more than an instrument to overcome technical deficiencies of the old constitution. It is celebrated by some as the constitutional consolidation of a conservative revolution. Others insist it is in deep tension procedurally, substantively and symbolically with basic commitments to liberal democracy, that are the foundation of the European Union.

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International Workshop in cooperation with
Norwegian Center for Human Rights
Faculty of Law - University of Oslo

Description

International courts and tribunals (ICTs) are rapidly increasing in influence and number. They regulate sectors that range from international criminal law to trade, from human rights to the law of the sea, with regional or global jurisdiction. And their findings are increasingly compulsory for states. This proliferation of international courts, coupled with their complex effects, contribute to what many perceive as the legalization and judicialization of international relations.

The conference seeks to rethink basic issues of constitutional theory in light of contemporary challenges, that have been sidelined and obscured by the generally statist focus of traditional constitutional theory. Among the questions that will be examined are: Can a constituent power, which is exclusively national, be the ground for the constitutions claim to legitimate authority? How can constitutional theory contribute to a normative understanding of borders? How is the relationship between national and international law to be conceived within constitutional theory?